ABSTRACT
Rehabilitation is the major alternative theory of punishment to retribution and deterrence. Its popularity has decreased over the last few decades. There was an explosion in interest from academics and public policymakers during the 1960s, which began to decline in the late 1970s. This fall in interest is partly explained by the public’s growing impatience concerning conclusive findings that rehabilitation was more effective than other punitive approaches at crime reduction combined with the concern that rehabilitation is too lenient. Rehabilitation theories have been making a comeback, sometimes now referred to as the ‘New Rehabilitation’ although the aims and methods are broadly similar.1
